Monday, February 20, 2012

Privacy: Personal Information And Sharing

I don't share squat with Facebook.  I mean, seriously, this is Zuckerberg who said called us users "dumb-asses" for wanting to give him information to start with.  With Google, it's less malicious as far as what they want to do with our data.  But Google's recent action under Larry Paige has me on notice.

And then there's the news that we learn Apple is allow apps like Path and Twitter to upload our information and be kept on their servers that we know are being attacked on a daily basis.  It would only be a matter of time before one of app developers or social media companies issues a press release telling us that their servers has been compromised by Anonymous because of one thing they did or another that pissed off these rogue hackers or just folks who wanted access to such a large amount of data.

And of course, Google hacked Safari to allow themselves and other advertisers the ability to install tracking cookies even when we explicitly said no to them.

But as Path and Twitter have indicated, their use of our address books is so that they can help us find friends and families who use the same service.  Quite benign.

So, let me as you this:  if there was a guarantee by these companies to make sure our data are never compromised and never used in any way other what is intended, are you okay with allowing these companies to upload our contact information?

No comments:

Apple Should Prepare to Leave China (There Is Still Time To Execute Such A Plan)

At first glance, you might think that the title of this article is a clickbait considering that China is the second biggest economy in the w...